Email support would be very important
I have been using FS for over 10 years. A functioning email support would be a big deal for the user —> would bring a lot more customer satisfaction.
In other words, a question / assignment (Request) is made via email —> the recipient creates a case (Case, Ticket) —> it is given its own number —> the answer is given via email (once the problem has been resolved). This is how support works in tens of thousands of companies globally. The inoperability / awkwardness of support is one of the biggest sources of dissatisfaction.
1) There are often complex problems, and they can never be solved over the phone (they may be impossible to explain over the phone).
2) Chat does not respond = waiting time can be long (no free agent) - once I waited for 40 minutes --> no one answered.
I think the email support described above would be as easy to implement for FS as Chat, but much easier for the customer to use.
Comments
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I would also prefer to send an email or fill in a ticket form, but... there are a number of points:
- How to filter out any bogus, malicious, spam, false, junk, unrelated or irrelevant correspondence sent to this support email address?
- Is it acceptable to wait one day, three days, five days, a week, a month, or should the answer be received within twenty-four hours?
- How long should support wait for a response before closing a ticket?
The current situation is that most troubles should be sorted relatively quickly via phone support or web chat. When this is not possible and the situation is too complex or clarification is required, then most likely, support agents will try to transfer the discussion to the email channel. With this approach, problems can be 'fixed' as quickly as possible, and "tickets" can be created directly on the case.
I see the problem with web chat.. is that it's unstable. For example, I discovered that almost every time I tried to use it (different companies), at some point I simply stopped seeing incoming messages (and hours later, when I refreshed the page or something, it suddenly turned out that the agent had arrived, written, and had already managed to close the chat without my responses). Still it is better for situations when you do not need to wait agent or his responses.
In complex situations, it might be possible to ask (over the phone) for an email address to provide additional information. It would be interesting to hear their answer..
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I support this request.
In my view, F-Secure would benefit a lot from having a proper ticket-based support channel, either by email or through a web form. Phone and chat support are useful for simple and urgent cases, but they are not always the best tools for complex technical problems.
Many security-related issues require a written explanation, screenshots, log files, exact error messages, product versions, operating system details, and sometimes several follow-up messages. These cases can be difficult to explain clearly over the phone, and chat sessions may time out or become unavailable before the issue is fully understood.
A ticket system would also make the support process more transparent. The customer would receive a case number, both sides could refer to the same information, and the history of the issue would remain available. This would reduce misunderstandings and make it easier to continue the investigation if the case needs to be escalated.
To avoid spam and irrelevant messages, F-Secure could use a structured support form instead of a completely open public email address. The form could ask for the product, license/subscription information, operating system, problem description, attachments, and preferred contact address. After submission, the customer would receive an email confirmation with a ticket number.
I do not think this needs to replace phone or chat support. Those channels are still useful for quick questions. But for complex technical cases, a proper email/ticket-based option would be much more practical and would likely improve customer satisfaction significantly.
